


Finite

by chiefmomboss



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Explicit Language, Gen, Hospitalization, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 17:09:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 7,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5172392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiefmomboss/pseuds/chiefmomboss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lin is seriously injured at work, she considers retirement—upsetting her family and friends. Ft. Tai Jun, original character created by amiraelizabeth</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Goon

Lin scrambled to find footing as she popped up from a hard roll after being kicked across the rooftop. On one knee, she slid, and sparks flew from her armor as is skated against the sheet metal. She grit her teeth at the sound—thirty-five years of being a cop and the screech of metal on metal still made her cringe.

When the skid stopped, she could see the lumbering triad still focused on her, arms up, ready to go again. Lin made a fist and snapped her wrist down, more interested in knocking the slimy jerk’s head in than actually arresting him. Her hand guard sparked, but the cable jammed after three feet. The triad laughed.

“No cables?” he teased. Greasy hair loose from his ponytail hung over his face, but she still saw his wicked grin.

Lin grabbed the exposed cable and snapped it. She got up and pushed out her blades instead.

The triad ran at her, and she blocked him from hitting her face. He kept swinging and she kept blocking: using the wide blades for shields, twisting, stepping back, waiting for an opening.

Her heel hit a wall, and she shoved her weight against the goon—anything to push him back. She was at the edge of the warehouse roof, with only a foot of metal as a guard.

He fell back a step but immediately pushed forward, ducking under her own swing. He rammed his shoulder into her abdomen. She fell back over the guard wall, and the triad grabbed her ankle.

Lin heard a sick pop as he flung her back onto the roof. Pain shot through her veins, and she screamed as he slammed her into the floor. Her head knocked back against the metal, and she caught an officer push the triad away before everything went black.

* * *

The rest happened in moments.

Flashing lights and Saikhan’s voice saying, “Can hear me, Lin? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

A blurry image of Mako standing over her and a gentle, “Don’t move, Chief.”

Hands everywhere, pulling on her armor, strapping her flat on her back, slipping something under her neck.

“Stay with me, okay, Chief?”


	2. Brace Yourselves

Everything came back into focus about a minute before a gentle voice began asking questions. “What’s your name?”

“Lin Beifong,” she said, except the words made her throat burn.

“Do you know where you are?”

“Hospital,” she breathed. The voice had to be a nurse. “I don’t know which one.”

“That’s okay, Ms. Beifong. You’re at Republic City General.”

Lin stared straight above her at a white ceiling panel. She tried to find the face to her nurse’s voice, but her neck wouldn’t move. Tears came to her eyes. “Why can’t I turn my head?”

“You have a neck brace on,” the nurse explained. “It’s just a sprain, but it needs to stay stable while it heals. Can you rate your pain for me on a scale from one to ten?”

Lin hadn’t thought about pain. The second she did, she realized every inch of her body hurt. Her head throbbed, her right knee sent out constant shooting pain, and everything beyond a shallow inhale felt like breathing fire.

“Nine,” she said.

“There’s quite a crowd waiting for you,” the nurse said. “Your husband said it would be best if you didn’t wake up from the anesthesia to a room full of people though.”

Husband. Lin didn’t correct the nurse.

“Would you like your bed propped up before we take you back to your room?”

“Please,” Lin said. Her nurse was a small woman with long hair pulled back. She smiled even though she had dark circles under her eyes. She smiled as she explained how Lin had been sedated once she reached the hospital so they could put her knee back together. She’d torn a tendon and it had to be reattached.

“We’ll set you up with some crutches or a wheelchair before you leave depending on how you feel,” she said. “There’s also quite a bit of bruising to your torso, but nothing broken.”

Lin set her arm across her stomach. The nurse speaking made her headache worse. “Anything else?”

“Concussion,” the nurse said. “We’ll keep an eye on you here for a few days to make sure you’re okay.”

Lin set her arm over her stomach. She hated the hospital, and she already hated the neck brace. She wanted to be in her own bed and sleep until everything stopped hurting.

“It’s still the same day,” Lin said. “Right?”

The nurse glanced at her watch as she pushed Lin down the straight hallway. “For another forty-five minutes it is.” She stopped the bed at a closed door and put on a big smile. “Ready for your family?”

Lin figured the people behind that door were not all family members. “Yeah.”

The nurse pushed the door open and pulled the hospital bed into the little room.

Tai Jun, she recognized first. He smiled but his eyes were bloodshot. Opal, Bolin, Mako. Tenzin and Bumi. Korra and Asami.

“Hey, kiddo, only a little worse for wear,” Bumi said.

Lin wanted to cry. She bit the inside of her cheek to fight it. The nurse parked her bed and mentioned an order for more pain medicine as she left.

Tai Jun stood by her bed and set a hand next to hers. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

She moved to hold his hand. He squeezed hers back harder than he ever had.

“What the fuck are all of you doing here,” she said. But tears sat in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Chief,” Mako said. “I called the temple to get a hold of Opal and everyone else was worried, too.”

“We thought if you were in the hospital, you were pretty beat up,” Tenzin said.

Lin brought her free hand up to wipe at the tears. “I have the worst headache of my life right now.”

“I called Mom,” Opal said. “She’s on the next train out here.”

“Thank you,” Lin said. “But I really would like to be alone for a little bit.”

“We just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Korra said.

Everyone started to file out, wishing her well, saying they’d be back to visit. Tai Jun stayed. He didn’t move—just held her hand.

“You okay?” she asked. She ran her thumb over the back of his hand.

“They called me, and then when I got here they said you were in surgery, and Mako said you’d been unconscious in the airship,” he explained. “Lin, I was terrified.”

“Me, too,” she said.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he repeated. “I just—I want to kiss you but the brace—”

She smiled. “Just be careful.”

Tai leaned down and gently kissed her, holding on for just a couple seconds. But to have that touch, to have Tai so close. She felt the tears slip. He pulled away and met her eyes.

“Honey—”

“Do you think I should retire?”

Tai brushed the hair off her forehead. “I think you should get some rest.”

“I’m serious, Tai.”

“I know.” He kissed her again. “And so am I.”

Lin wiped at her tears. He wasn’t going to give her a yes or no—even if he wanted to. “I should’ve told that nurse my pain was a ten.”

He smiled. “I think they had you pretty drugged up before you woke up.”

“Not enough.” She held onto his hand with both of hers. “She said I have to stay for a few days. Will you stay with me?”

“I’m not leaving your side,” he said.

* * *

Lin discovered that, “We’ll keep an eye on you,” actually meant, “We’re going to wake you up every two hours.”

At five in the morning, Lin was too tired of being woken up to bother falling back asleep. Nearly upright, unable to move her neck or much of anything else—she wasn’t really sleeping anyway. The pain medication was wearing off again, and light was starting to filter in through the blinds.

The nurses were fascinated by Tai’s dedication to staying with her. They got him a pillow and blanket, and he slept in the wooden chair he pulled up to her bedside. Right now, the pillow was stuffed behind him and he was laying across her bed with his head in her lap.

She ran her fingers between his shoulder blades and listened to his light snores.

In the mess of being unconscious, Lin didn’t really have time to be scared, but now she was terrified. That triad goon could have killed her. As it stood, she wouldn’t move normally for months. She didn’t even know when she could get back to work if she was going to go.

Maybe it wouldn’t have been a big deal when she didn’t have Tai Jun, before she’d reconciled with Su. Eight people who showed up to make sure she was okay. Su was on the way, probably with all her boys in tow.

Tai squeezed her hand in his sleep.

She wanted to lean down and kiss his cheek, but her neck brace wouldn’t allow it.

Lin didn’t want to scare him like that ever again. All those people who cared? She cared back.

Who was she kidding anyway? She was almost fifty-five. She couldn’t even take down a goon.

The door opened, and light flooded across her bed. Her nurse stood in the doorway.

“The pain isn’t keeping you awake, is it?” the nurse asked as she pulled the clipboard off the end of the bed.

“No,” she said. “Just can’t sleep anymore.”

She took Lin’s wrist to check her pulse. “I’m sorry about the constant checking on you. It’s just a precaution.”

“I know,” she said. “I can catch up on sleep later.”

The nurse marked down Lin’s pulse on the chart. She reached into her pocket and retrieved a flashlight to check Lin’s pupils.

“Maybe you should check him,” Lin said. “He’s pretty out.”

“He’s really sweet.” The nurse smiled. “Twenty-four hours without an issue and we can send you home. And you’re good so far.”

“Thanks.”

“You might want to get some more rest though,” she said as she slid the clipboard back into the slot. “The doctor will come by pretty early to give you some exercises.”

“I’ll work on it.”

The nurse left, and closed the door as quietly as she could. Lin gently patted Tai’s shoulder, and when he didn’t jolt awake, she smiled.

 


	3. Visitors

The doctor’s exercises included taking off the neck brace for twenty minutes to gently turn her head. Lin didn’t think she could miss the awkward brace, but the pain of moving her head brought tears to her eyes. The doctor showed Tai how to put the brace back on properly, and he had Tai do it by himself to prove she was in good hands when they discharged her.

Then he looked at her knee. “I know it doesn’t feel too great,” he said as he adjusted the splint. “But I promise it looks good. I won’t make you bend it yet.”

Lin hadn’t dared to look at what mess was under the splint and bandages. She took the doctor’s word for it.

A knock on the open door caught their attention. “Hey, Linny,” Su said. She was nothing less than disheveled. She didn’t have her necklace on, and her hair was smooshed down on one side. Dark circles to match everyone else’s, and lines on her face like she just crawled out of bed.

“You look like shit,” Lin said.

“My big sister got hurt so I haven’t slept a whole lot,” she answered. “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit.”

The doctor marked a few things on Lin’s chart and left.

“I brought Baatar and Huan,” she said. “I didn’t think you’d want a crowded room—but sometimes you forget they’re even here.”

Lin smiled.

The three filed in from the hallway, and Huan offered Lin a wire flower.

“I know how you feel about gifts,” he said. “But the train ride was boring and I found the wire in my pocket.”

“Thanks, kid,” she said. Lin liked the touch of the metal. She moved her eyes up to find Baatar reading her chart.

“Whiplash?” he said. “Opal said you got into a bad fight.”

“Yeah, and the guy swung me over his head into the ground,” Lin explained.

Huan and Tai Jun had struck up a conversation about wire sculpture, and Su had a stupid grin on her face. One Lin recognized as the face she made before she said, “I love my boys.”

“You didn’t have to come all the way from Zaofu,” Lin said.

“I love you, so yes I did,” Su answered. She took Tai’s empty chair. “You doing okay? You know—besides the neck brace and stuff.”

Lin sighed, which hurt. “I don’t know—I’m thinking about retiring.”

The room’s hum disappeared.

Huan leaned over to Tai. “Did she say retire?”

“Please don’t quit because you lost one fight,” Su said.

“It’s not quitting,” Lin said. “I’m not indestructible, Su. I should step down before something worse happens.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt again either,” Su said. “But you shouldn’t retire just because you did. Mom would call that quitting.”

“I don’t care what Mom would say,” Lin argued. “I’m in a neck brace.”

“I wouldn’t do anything just yet, Lin,” Baatar said. He still had her chart. “You remember the stuff Su said last year after her concussion.”

“Concussion?” Su echoed. “Don’t you dare do anything until you’re better.”

“I’ve had a concussion before, Suyin,” she said. “And I haven’t decided anything—I’m just thinking about it. I won’t be able to fight again for months anyway. End of discussion.”

Su patted her arm. “When will they discharge you?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

“We’ll stay in town and help you get settled,” Su said. “I can stay with you a couple nights so Tai Jun can have a little break.”

“Actually,” Lin said. “We live together now.”

Su smiled. “Really? We can find a hotel then, and keep you from becoming a shut in.”

“You don’t have to stay,” Lin said.

“Just for a week,” Su insisted. “To help you out. Until you’re settled.”

Lin didn’t argue. She hadn’t seen much of Su since the battle with Kuvira, and maybe Su needed a break from rebuilding Zaofu more than she needed to take care of her sister.

She held onto Huan’s little flower. There was a certain energy to holding the metal that she’d gotten used to wearing her armor all the time, but she missed it after only half a day.

The pattern was surprisingly intricate, but Huan had a pretty intense focus and a thirteen hour train ride. She started to wonder how true the “found it in my pocket” story was. Lin was forever finding tools and bits of wire and string in Tai Jun’s pockets, but never something of the length this piece had to be. It covered the palm of her hand and had a spiral of wide petals—she thought it might be a lotus flower. The center had individual anthers, the wire folded over itself to make the tiny points.

Suyin and her boys stayed until she started to fall asleep in the chair. Tai Jun suggested they take a nap at his house and gave her the keys. When the nurse appeared shortly after they’d left, Lin wondered if she’d ever get a second to herself in this hospital.

She suggested Lin moving around a bit—having lunch in the little courtyard. Tai left to get takeout, and the nurse helped Lin into a wheelchair. The chair was only uncomfortable in the sense that she had no other option to get anywhere. She was at the mercy of the nurse, shoving her around hallways until they reached the tiny courtyard.

The yard was simple: a patch of grass in an urban landscape—no spirit vines but spirits seemed to congregate there. Just little ones, of the brightly colored and cute variety.

“They make patients smile,” the nurse said. “It’s like free therapy. They seem to know where people who need them are.”

Lin watched a blue butterfly spirit flit from patient to patient. It stopped in front of her for a second and flew off towards an opening door.

Korra came from behind the door and smiled when she saw the butterfly. She let it sit on her hand for a second before it began its circle around the courtyard again.

“Beifong!” she said as she walked up to Lin. “You look better today!”

Lin didn’t feel better. She felt worse, in a way. She felt dirty and greasy from sweat and nearly sick to her stomach from all the pain medicine. The pain itself she’d gotten used to.

“You really don’t have to visit me," Lin said.

“You were there for me in your way so I’m going to be here for you in my way.” Korra stomped the ground to pop up a stump of earth and sat. “Plus I had some downtime between stuff today and I didn’t have time to go all the way back home.”

“I’ve got an army of people who want to be here for me,” she said.

“You’re the only person I know who would complain about having too many friends,” Korra said. “Except maybe Mako. He’s kind of taken after you, you know?”

“I noticed.”

“Where’s Tai Jun? I didn’t think he’d leave you for a second.”

“Getting lunch.”

“You two are really sweet,” she said. “I thought yesterday he was going to run out of fingernails to bite.”

Lin hadn’t really looked at his fingers, but she knew he got fidgety when he worried. Maybe he should carry around spools of wire like Huan. “That’s Tai for you,” she said. She thought of Tai before she woke up yesterday—a complete mess with limited information, trying to stay somewhat composed in that little room with all those people. “Was everyone really that scared yesterday?” she asked.

Korra nodded. “You’re Chief Beifong,” she said. “You don’t get hurt.”

A spirit that looked something like a bean with leaves for ears sat at the base of Korra’s rock stool. She picked it up and set it in her lap.

Lin wanted to argue that she did get hurt—she’d been to the hospital at least once for every year she’d been a police officer. Usually for minor things and never this serious. Instead, she said, “I might retire.”

Korra pouted. “But—you’re Chief Beifong.”

“I’m too old for this,” she said. “I’m wearing a neck brace and my family is coming from all over the world over it.”

“I thought we finally had something worked out where we got along.”

Lin sighed. “This has nothing to do with you and whatever grief you manage to cause me.”

“I know—and I know I’m the Avatar who ushered in a lot of big changes but—I finally got used to it all. I wanted to enjoy it for awhile,” she said.

“I haven’t decided anything,” Lin said. “I just think—maybe it’s the right time. Before something else comes after you.”

Korra grinned. “You gotta kick one more ass before you leave.”

“I’ll work on it.”

Korra set the spirit down and let it wander off. “Also a long time ago I may have told Saikhan he was the worst police chief ever and I don’t think he’s forgotten about it.”

Lin started to smile. “Probably not.”

“Going home tomorrow?”

“That’s the plan, kid.”

Korra stood up and put the earth back into place. “I’m twenty-two.”

“Still a kid to me.”

“Let me know if you need something—but I think your boyfriend’s got it covered.” She passed Tai Jun as she left the courtyard, and he came up to Lin with a bag of takeout and a smile.

“Hungry?”

“Starving."


	4. Home

Lin made it twenty-four hours without any issues, and they discharged her in the morning. The doctor gave Lin crutches, but her sides were still bruised and her neck didn’t like the angle they put her spine at. She stuck with the wheelchair.

Tai Jun brought her clean clothes. He pushed her out to the car and helped her into it. He kissed her cheek. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Su’s waiting for you at the house.”

“I figured.”

He kissed her again before he shut the door.

The doctor told Tai not to let her sleep all day—to get her up and moving a little bit. But she knew the second she got into their bed that she’d be out.

Su helped Lin wash her hair and clean up. She wrapped up in an old shirt of Tai’s and pajama pants loose enough to fit over the bulky leg splint. She used the crutches around the house so she didn’t have to be pushed around, but they were still uncomfortable.

She glanced in the cracked doorway to their room. Tai was sound asleep on their bed. She smiled. He deserved the rest. She managed to hobble to the top of the stairs and have Su help her down.

* * *

Even after a full night’s sleep in her own bed, Lin felt groggy. The headache persisted. Tai Jun took the neck brace off in the morning so she could turn her head for a few minutes.

“We should take your family to Li’s by the station,” he mentioned.

Her family was currently at the Air Temple having breakfast with Opal and Tenzin.

“I want to just lay low for a little while,” she said.

“I think you’ll feel better if you get out for a little bit.”

Lin gently turned her head right, finding that it still hurt but she could move a bit further than yesterday. “Not so close to the station.”

“But it’s your favorite place. Doesn’t fried pork-chicken and rice sound good?

She slowly turned her head to the left. The meal sounded like a dream, but she wanted to at least be stable on crutches before she dared get close to the station. “Just not today,” she said. “Okay?”

“How about my studio?” he said as she turned back to the right.

“Tai, please.”

He helped her back into the brace. “I don’t want you to spend the next couple months in the house.”

“I won’t,” she insisted. “Just not today.”

“Will you still come to my show next week?”

The thought of having all those people look at her confined to a wheelchair hurt. “Actually—”

“Please think about it for a few days,” he said. “I know you don’t feel good and it’s been a long night. But consider it.”

Lin sighed. “Alright.”


	5. Support

“You really didn’t have to do this for me,” Lin said.

“I started working on it when Korra was hurt,” Asami explained. “It was mostly done already—I just made some adjustments so it would work better for you.”

Lin assumed by adjustments, she meant the police badge engraving on one of the arm rests.

Korra had shown up at Lin and Tai’s house—which she wasn’t sure how Korra found. She insisted there was a matter of utmost importance at Future Industries, and Tai Jun laughed and let her take Lin for the afternoon. That was one thing Asami’s wheelchair wouldn’t fix: she’d still be at the mercy of whoever pushed her. Even the metal frame wouldn’t make Lin able to push it herself—the doctor explicitly said no bending. Not with her neck in the brace. She couldn’t turn the way she needed to, and forcing it would keep her from healing.

The wheelchair was a super light-super tough metal frame with an actual padded seat instead of a stretch of cloth. Foot rests that adjusted to suit Lin's immobilizing knee brace. A side pouch and a bag on the back. Wheels with a little bit more tread and reliable breaks. The only thing it didn't have was a motor. Asami said it would've been too bulky with one.

Lin did like how this one looked slimmer. The wheels didn’t squeak.

Asami kneed a bar in the back, and the chair collapsed together. “It folds too.”

“Isn’t it great?” Korra asked.

“Yeah,” Lin said. She missed being able to nod.

“Let’s get you set up then!”

Korra helped Lin switch chairs, a little against Lin’s will. She was hoping to be out of the chair for good when the neck brace came off.

“I won’t need it for long,” Lin mentioned.

Asami nodded. “I just need someone to test it. If it works, I might make more of them. The wood ones seem a little outdated.”

Lin hated sitting. The last week of it had driven her insane. Asami’s wheelchair was more comfortable, but the old one hadn’t been uncomfortable until she’d dealt with it for a couple days.

“What do you think?” Asami asked.

“It’s nice,” she answered. “Can you do anything about the neck brace?”

Asami grinned. Lin was kidding, but she was ready to measure. “How do you sleep in this?”

“I don’t.”

“So you get to take it off at night?”

“No.”

Asami nodded. “I’ll think of something.”

* * *

Lin’s family and various “supporters” insisted that they take her out, like sitting at home for even one day was too much. She hadn't been to the station in eight days, and she liked the idea of relaxing. She just never got to practice it.

Tai Jun took her to his studio one day. She didn’t mind that, and Tai helped her onto the old couch he kept there.

Lin was the closest to relaxing she’d been since the incident. She lay flat on the couch and listened to Tai work. Her eyes fell shut, and before she knew it, she fell asleep.

“Honey,” she heard. Tai kissed her forehead. “How are you doing?”

“Really tired of being asked that question,” she breathed.

“Sorry.” Tai got down on the floor and took her hand. “You just look uncomfortable.”

“I want to take this brace off,” she said. “I can’t handle it anymore.”

“It’s only for a couple more weeks—”

“You don’t get it,” she said. “I can’t move. I can’t turn my head. You think I look uncomfortable? I am constantly uncomfortable. And I need someone to push me around. Yesterday, Su dragged me around the city for hours and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.”

Tai squeezed her hand. “She just wants to spend time with you.”

“You know what I want?” Lin said. “I want to sleep on my side. I want to shake my head no. I want to cuddle.”

He kissed her hand. “I just don’t want to hurt you.”

Tai Jun had been good about making Lin feel normal—he listened better than Su when it came to being pushed around—but he still acted like she was fragile.

“I don’t care if it hurts,” she said. “I want to be held.” Tears sat in her eyes, and Lin was getting tired of that, too. She blamed it on the pain medication and lack of sleep.

“I can do that,” he said.

He helped her sit up and unhooked the neck brace. Still afraid to leave her without support for too long, he suggested they lay down, and Tai slid his arm under her neck.

Lin missed his chest against her back, his arm over her waist. Tai was warm—he was close enough she could smell the marble dust on his clothes. She felt more human than she had in days.

She closed her eyes, enjoying the contact, the warmth, the freedom to move. Tai Jun in general. “Thank you.”

“This is harder than you let on,” Tai said. “Isn’t it?”

“I just wish people didn’t think I need to be constantly entertained,” she breathed. “I’m fine with staying home. I like that.”

Tai found her hand and twisted their fingers together. “We just don’t want you sitting at home and sulking. You mentioned retiring, and we’ve been afraid this would get you down really fast.”

Lin sighed. The bruising had gotten better that this didn’t hurt so much. “I’m not considering it because I got hurt—I’ve been hurt at work a thousand times.”

“Tenzin said he picked you up from the hospital about every six months,” Tai teased, but his tone immediately changed. “What’s different this time?”

“People are worried about me,” Lin said. “I’ve been to officers’ funerals, and I’ve seen families cry—and when I saw all those people in that little room—I couldn’t let that happen.”

Tai kissed the top of her head. “I love you. But don’t retire because I worry about you.”

“Tai, I finally have a family,” she insisted. “I want to spend time with them. With you.”

“But getting hurt made you realize that?”

Lin bit her lip. “I didn’t like how upset you were. I didn’t like how Su just up and ran to Republic City. Because I got thrown around by some triad goon. I just—I think it’s time.”

“Please don’t do this because of me,” he said. “But if you think it’s time.”

“I’m still thinking—but this is the longest vacation I’ve had in thirty years. It’s nice not having an alarm.”

“Okay.”

They were quiet, and Lin had dozed off when Tai gently nudged her, said he should probably get back to work. Lin tried to sit up on her own, but a burning pain radiated from her neck. She wrapped her hand around the left side and let Tai Jun help her up.

“Maybe that wasn’t a good idea,” he said as he helped her back into the brace.

Lin knew it wasn’t a good idea. She didn’t care—she wanted to snuggle with Tai and that was the only way. “Worth it,” she said.

He kissed her gently, something they’d gotten pretty good at.


	6. Unexpected

Tai helped Lin out of the car when they got back from his studio, and he gave her the crutches from his backseat. She carefully hobbled up to the door, where he opened it.

On the couch sat Su, and their mom. Lin wanted to cry or scream—she couldn’t decide which.

“Not even gonna say hi to your mom?” she said as Lin leaned the crutches on the chair and carefully sat down. “I came halfway across the world for your twisted ankle.”

“Nobody asked you to come,” Lin said. “And it’s my knee.”

“She’s our mom and she should be here in your time of need,” Su said.

“You know what I need, Suyin?” Lin said. “A moment to myself.”

“Maybe she can talk some sense into you,” Su insisted.

“What sense? It’s just a concussion—I’m not losing my mind.”

“No, because you lost that a long time ago,” Toph laughed.

“Then why do you want to retire so badly all of a sudden?” Su snapped.

“You want to retire?” their mom said. “It’s about damn time.”

Su glared at her. “What?”

“How long have you been chief, Lin?”

“Fifteen years?” Lin guessed.

“Long enough. Get out. You’re too old for this shit.”

Lin sighed. Su’s jaw dropped.

“She can’t quit because she got hurt,” Su said. “That’s—giving up.”

“No she should quit because that job fucking sucks badgermole balls,” Toph said.

“I’m not quitting,” Lin snapped. “I’m retiring.”

“It has nothing to do with the neck brace?”

“Neck brace?” Toph echoed. “How did you manage that?”

“A guy twice my size threw me into the ground,” Lin explained.

“You’ve been beating up guys twice your size since you were ten,” her mom said.

“Bumi doesn’t count—”

“That’s not the point!” Su argued. “Lin, you can’t retire like this.”

Toph shrugged. “Who cares if you got beat up this one time? You’ve done too much other stuff for people to give a shit about the time you got hurt.”

Lin glanced to her mom. “Really?”

“You don’t think you’ve done a good job?”

“I do, but—”

“Then if you’re finally sick of this police crap, make it someone else’s responsibility and take a vacation.”

“You think I’ve done a good job? As chief of police?” Lin said.

“You cared a lot more than I ever did,” she said.

“That actually means a lot, Mom. Thanks.”

“I can’t really tease you while you’re in a neck brace, can I?”

Lin thought of the various bruises and bandages she’d been teased about before, but she didn’t argue.

“Well I’m going back to my hotel,” Su huffed. She stood and stalked out.

Lin couldn’t see Tai, but she heard pans in the kitchen. “You really didn’t have to come up here. It’s not as bad as Su probably made it sound.”

“I wanted to hear for myself you were retiring,” she said. “You’re not lying.”

“I’d rather be with my family,” Lin said. “It’s been a long time.”

“I’m glad you came to your senses, kid.”

“I’m fifty-four.”

Her mom smiled. “Still a kid to me.”

* * *

“I’ve been thinking,” Tai said as Lin tossed the pain pills back.

She swallowed them with a mouthful of water and set the glass on the nightstand.

“What if, instead of you taking your neck brace off to cuddle with me, I just cuddle up to you?”

She smiled. “That seems like a big advantage for you.”

“It’s in favor of your healing,” he said. “The advantage is yours.”

Lin rolled her eyes. “Come here.”

Tai climbed into bed and snuggled up to Lin and the pillows stacked behind her. He put his head on her chest, and Lin set her arms around him. “I see why you like this so much,” Tai said. He slid his arms around her waist.

“I want to go to your show,” she said.

“Really?” he said.

“Yeah—I should be there.”

“We should bring Su and your mom,” he teased.

“Absolutely not.”

“You have to admit it’d be fun,” he said.

She smiled. “You’d let my mom torture you all night?”

“How long is she going to stick around and torture you?” he said.

“She’s been here what—a few hours? Too long.”

Tai laughed. “Su seems upset.”

“I don’t think she wants to admit we’re getting old,” Lin said.

“We’re so old,” Tai said. “Su’d be a grandma by now if Kuvira hadn’t lost it.” He sat up and kissed her cheek. Lin grabbed his shirt. “You okay?”

“Can we make out? Carefully?” Lin said.

He laughed. “Your mom’s here.”

“I don’t care,” she said, tugging at his shirt.

Tai set a leg over her and kissed her.

Lin put her hands on the sides of his face. She kissed him back for a moment. “I’ve been thinking,” she said.

Tai brushed the hair off her face. “Yeah?”

“What if—you do whatever you want to me, as long as you’re careful.”

He smiled. “I like the way you think.”


	7. Beauty

“You look beautiful,” Tai said.

“You don’t have to say that,” Lin said.

Su took the crutches from her, and Tai took her hands to help her into the wheelchair.

“I don’t know, Lin, your boobs look pretty good,” Su said. “Kind of forget about the neck brace.”

Lin wished she could forget about it.

Su was also proud of her work. She picked out the dress from Lin’s closet. She pulled out the green gown and asked why she hadn’t worn that to Varrick’s wedding. The dress had thin straps, a neckline that was more of a chest line, and a fluffy skirt that covered the knee splint.

“She’s not wrong,” Tai said.

Twelve days into her sentence of this brace, Lin noticed Tai forgot about the neck brace until she had to turn her head.

Her mom stayed, maybe to torment her daughters more than anything. Tai invited her to the show which drew a response of, “I’ve been to an art museum before—not that interesting.”

Su wanted to go, mostly to buy a new dress. Her kids and husband would accompany her. She talked Baatar Jr into coming down. Lin was impressed he hadn’t come when his mom did—he seemed comfortable around her after the Kuvira disaster. She got it, although Lin didn’t quite know what she got about it.

Lin figured, at this rate, the embarrassment of her family would be worse than the wheelchair and neck brace.

She rubbed the heel of her palm against the police badge etched into the chair arm.

“You do look beautiful,” Tai said as he pushed her to the car. “But to me you always do.”


	8. Decisions

Lin’s mother stayed in town—more accurately, in their spare bedroom—for a week. Since Opal moved to Republic City, they’d become close. Bolin, she tolerated. Su and Baatar, Lin had gotten used to in the past two weeks. Huan casually appearing in Tai’s workshop seemed normal. Baatar Jr more or less blended into the wallpaper.

But her mother was one too many family members constantly there.

“I love them,” she said to Tai at breakfast. “I really do. But I want a moment to myself.” She picked up the hot cup of tea and carefully tilted it to take a small sip. Tai had suggested she drink tea through a straw to make it easier, but she refused.

“I thought Su would only stay for a week,” he said. “It’s been almost two.”

She sighed. “She won’t leave until she’s won.”

Tai nodded. “Have you decided yet what you’re going to do?”

Lin set the cup down. “No.”

“What do you mean you haven’t decided?”

Lin clench her jaw at the sound of her mom’s voice. Tai got up and grabbed a grabbed a plate for her.

“I just haven’t,” Lin said. “It’s not like Su is completely wrong.”

“Su has no idea what she’s talking about,” Toph said. “Even if you did go back to work, you couldn’t fight like you used to. After a blow to your knee like that you can’t be the kind of chief you are.”

No one had mentioned Lin’s knee injury, really. It was an elephant-bear in the room—one that constantly clawed at her no matter how many pain pills she took.

Lin pouted as her mother blantely told her the truth she’d ignored for two weeks.

“Would you rather leave or become the chief you bitched about after I left?” Toph asked as she sat at the table.

Tai set down a plate of pork-chicken dumplings over scrambled eggs mixed with pan-fried tomatoes.

“You care way too much about everyone else,” she said. “That’s your problem.”

Tai looked to Lin across the table. His jaw was worried but his eyes knew Toph was right.

“There’s nothing else you want to do for the rest of your life but sit at a desk and sign your name?” she asked before picking up a dumpling with her fingers and stuffing the whole thing her mouth.

“I could come up with something,” Lin said. She watched Tai as he poured her mother a cup of tea. “If I had a day or two to think it over.”


	9. Plans

Mako pushed Lin through the City Hall. Her resignation letter sat in her lap. “I’m going to miss you, Chief,” he said.

“Don’t let the other kids pick on you,” she teased. “I won’t come save you anymore.”

Mako laughed. He stopped in front of Raiko’s office door and knocked.

Raiko knew what the paper was before Lin handed it to him. Still, he read it before he said, “It’s been an honor, Beifong. It’s a shame you have to leave this way.”

“It’s just time,” she said.

Raiko nodded, but she didn’t think he believed her. “We’ll work on some proper arrangements when you’re feeling better. For now, I think Saikhan has a handle on things.”

“Thanks,” she said.

As Mako pushed Lin back out to Tai Jun’s car, he asked, “What will you do with all your free time?”

“Take a vacation with my boyfriend,” she answered. “And destroy my alarm clock.”

She could feel his grin behind her. “Good plan.”

 


	10. New Beginnings

Lin lay on the couch with ice over her knee. She drank one of Tai’s shakes, one that managed to mask the bitter kale taste. Saikhan had agreed to be the interim chief while the process of finding someone younger went on. She’d been retired for two weeks and without her neck brace for one. Although the muscle still ached, she could turn her head normally—just not too quickly.

Tai sat next to her and read the newspaper. He wore his gold-wire reading glasses, which Lin always thought looked goofy on him.

“Let’s get on a train,” she said before she sipped the thick drink. “And ride it to the last stop.”

Tai laughed but didn’t look away from the paper. “Right now?”

She nodded. “Right now. Fill a suitcase and get out of here.”

“You mean like Zaofu? Gaoling?”

“No—I mean ride the train to the last stop. Wherever.”

“That’ll be uncomfortable for your knee,” he said, turning a page of the paper.

“Everything is uncomfortable for my knee.” She prodded his thigh with her bare toes. “I’ve always wanted to just get up and go somewhere—and now I can.”

Tai smiled. He folded up the paper. “I’ll pack us up.”

The last stop on the southbound train was a small coastal town. Lin couldn’t walk with her crutches in the sand, but Tai Jun didn’t seem to mind carrying her across the beach to a spot by the water. They made a fire as the sun went down, turning the sky into a watercolor of purple and orange. Lin leaned against Tai.

“What will you do with all your free time?” he asked. He knew she couldn’t be still for too long. She knew it, too.

“Spend time with you,” she said. “And our families. Mine fell apart so long ago—I’m glad I have it back.”

“Even though Su’s mad at you now?”

Lin rolled her eyes. “She’ll get over it.”

“I don’t know, I here Beifong girls hold onto things for a long time,” he teased.

She poked his side. “She’d get over it if I told her we wanted to move to Zaofu.”

“Absolutely not.”

She smiled and pressed her cheek on his shoulder. The angle hurt, but she didn’t care.

“Anything else you want to do?” he teased.

Lin watched the sparks and flames reach up into the night sky. “I could always learn to paint.”


End file.
